In the following article Marta Harnecker, a Chilean sociologist, further explores a topic she has addressed in many books and pamphlets over a lifetime of active involvement in Latin American radical politics. First published on the Spanish website Rebelión in September 2015, it appears in the January 2016 issue of Monthly Review, in a translation Richard Fidler made at Marta’s request.

She notes: The degree to which existing state institutions can be used, or the kinds of new institutions that must be created, in the process of post-capitalist social transformation [including degrowth?] are questions that can only be addressed successfully in reference to the specific conditions in each country.